


Double Cloning, Trouble Blues

by Cenobia



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Clones, Cybernetics, F/F, Slow Burn, Transhumanism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:06:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26627200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cenobia/pseuds/Cenobia
Summary: Mass Effect 2, but the whole 'Shepard is a space terminator and by the way there was a viable clone' plot points are expanded on instead of downplayed, courtesy of Project Lazarus's cybernetics expert.Some humour, some action, some swearing, some drama. Eventually some romance.
Relationships: Female Shepard Clone (Mass Effect)/Original Character(s), Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Double Cloning, Trouble Blues

“There. On the monitor. Something’s wrong.”

A dull ache brought her to consciousness. Hells, had she gone overboard on shore leave? She hadn’t done that in a long time. Everything was so blurry.

“She’s reacting to outside stimuli. Showing an awareness of her surroundings.”

Judging by the pain getting steadily worse, Ava Jeanne Shepard figured that was probably not a good thing. She tried lifting her arm, but everything felt so _heavy_. 

_REMOTE OVERRIDE__

_AUTOMATIC REGULATION ENABLED__

Wait, what was that? She wasn’t wearing her helmet, how was she seeing this- 

_Oh. Oh, that feels so nice._ Somewhere, in the depths of her mind, she realized her body was being flooded with painkillers. Unfortunately the rest of said mind was busy enjoying the ride and looking at the woman approaching her from her side. Below? Directions.

Oh yeah, she was high alright.

“Oh my god Miranda, I think she’s waking up.”

Well duh, of course she was! It must be at _least_ 10am by now. Good gods, her CO was going to chew her ass out. Hold on-

She was N7. She was a Spectre! Hah, she didn’t _have_ a CO anymore! That was hilarious. She tried smiling, but her mouth felt so stiff. Oh, there was someone else! He looked bald.

She always thought bald people looked kinda weird. Why did he look so worried? Everything was fine, she felt great!

Oooh, wait, is Miranda the name of the lady with the way too tight clothing? Yeah, that makes sense. 

“Damnit Wilson, she’s not ready yet. Give her the sedative!”

No, it’s fine, she’s getting up already, gods. These people are so nosy, and why are they in her bedroom anyway? Oh right, body doesn’t want to move. Silly body, it’s not night anymore, she should get up!

“Absolutely not! The implants are already fixing up your mess!”

_AUTOMATIC REGULATION ENABLED__

Or not. Maybe 5 more minutes will make her eyes see right again. Wow, she really didn’t get enough sleep, so tired all of a sudden. Wait, where did baldie go? Did he turn into this nice doctor? Hahah, nice doctor is angry at Miranda. 

“Seriously, Lawson!? Do I need to fix everything in here!? Is this amateur hour?”

She felt bad for the angry nice doctor. They had pretty ears, they’re so long and pointy. She used to find that mod so cool back on earth. Someone with cool ears shouldn’t need to get this angry, Anderson always told her that it wasn’t good for you.

“You should get some extra rest Shepard. We’ll wake you up in the morning, alright?”

Alright angry nice doctor, you’re really nice. And not angry anymore. That’s good. That’s goo…

* * *

  
  
  


**5 months later**

  
  


“Godsdamnit!”

For all intents and purposes, it was indeed a godsdamnit situation that Dr. Henson found herself in. 

Her left arm useless after taking a round from a LOKI mech, the station coming apart, the door not locking, and her patient still in an induced coma after she was so rudely interrupted in the middle of the memory relaying process. 

On the bright side, the medigel had stopped the bleeding, she now had a gun- even if she wasn’t necessarily some sort of special agent- and she had the button to wake up said patient right on her Omni-tool. 

To wake up _Commander Shepard_ , right on her Omni-tool. 

Which she would have pressed already, if it wasn’t for the elephant in the room. Or rather, the _original_ Commander Shepard that Miranda had just woken up in the station. 

She knew her orders, of course. Protocol dictated that the clone was only to be awakened if Lazarus Alpha failed, and considering Lazarus Alpha was running around and making mincemeat out of the mechs in her path, she _should_ be euthanizing Lazarus Beta and getting the hell off this station.

Problem the first: She was unlikely to reach the escape shuttles with all of her blood still inside her body when every single security mech was shooting people on sight. _She’d know_.

Problem the second: She wasn’t about to _euthanize an innocent patient under her care after having to watch all of their memories._ Oh, of course, she’d known the protocol from the start. She thought it would be fine.

That was before she saw who her subject truly was. Of course, she’d heard of Shepard, Hero of the Citadel. She’d even heard of the Hero of Elysium. But to actually see someone’s life through their eyes, to see their pain, determination, kindness, _love_ -

She just couldn’t. Shepard was _her_ patient. _Her_ responsibility. And she would not fail them now.

With a deep breath, the good doctor closed her eyes and sealed her fate.

“Here goes nothing.”

* * *

  
  
  


“Shepard? Commander Shepard, please wake up. We are under attack, please wake up!”

Oh, someone was shouting for her help over the sound of gunshots. That’s tuesday alright. Ava Shepard slid off the hospital bed and into the cover of the door frame with the ease of someone that has trained to handle any combat situation that can be thrown at a person for years.

Probably because she had.

Just how in the hell she had gone from moping around in the Normandy while stranded on the Citadel to waking up in a medical facility was yet to be explained, however.

_SYSTEM BOOT COMPLETE__

Also that. Someone really needed to explain _that_.

The woman on the other side of the door was trying to return fire one-handed, without much success. Judging by the white coat, she was a doctor of some kind, so it wasn’t entirely surprising. Now, the long horizontal pointed ears and the- what in hells, was that some sort of _robotic tail?_

Those were surprising.

“Here, take this gun. The whole station is under attack. We need to get to the evacuation shuttles!” She slid the pistol over to Shepard, leaning back against the door frame and holding what seemed to be a wounded arm.

“I’d like to know what station this is, why am I in it, and what the hell happened to my ship!” The Infiltrator replied over more gunfire, peeking out just enough to take aim and remove the heads of 4 LOKI mechs in quick succession. It felt easy, almost _too_ easy. Like her body was correcting any sort of imperfection in her movements.

When the gunfire stopped, the woman timidly poke her head out to check. Confirming they were safe for the time being, she turned to Shepard to start a phrase- and stopped herself in consternation with visible thought. Finally, she made eye contact again, leaving the Commander to notice that she seemed to have implants absolutely everywhere. Quite seamless ones, granted, definitely custom-made. A transhumanist, maybe?

“Alright. My name is Doctor Anette Henson. What I’m about to tell you will sound either completely fake or insane, but I swear it’s all true.” She waved her hand in the air, and a map of the facility appeared in Shepard’s vision, with the evacuation route highlighted.

_That was concerning, to say the least._

“Believe me, I know exactly how that feels. Now, if you could not make things appear in my eyes without warning, I’d appreciate it.” Moving forward and covering the angles, Shepard kicked one of the mech’s pistols towards the other woman, taking out two more around a corner. 

“Shit, I’m sorry. I forgot this is all new to you. What is the last thing you remember? Leaving Virmire, coming back to the Citadel, and then?” Henson asked, doing her best to keep up with the N7.

“And then-” Shepard tried to fill in the blanks between the Normandy and this facility, but nothing concrete came forth. “-and then I was here. I can _feel_ there’s supposed to be more, but it’s just empty.” Four more LOKIs went down, barely having had the chance to open fire. 

“Well, let me fill that in to start. You stole the Normandy. Went to Ilos. Went through the Conduit. Killed Saren. Helped destroy Sovereign. Was sent on Geth mop-up. Got killed when the SR-1 was destroyed by an unknown ship.” 

That last one made Shepard visibly stumble for a second.

“I got what?” She positioned herself in front of the doctor, signaling that she needed to explain this a hell of a lot more before they could keep moving.

“Killed, Commander. You got spaced, the Normandy was blown apart, and you _reentered a planet in your armour._ We are in Lazarus station, and I’m one of the heads of the Lazarus project. It took two years and billions of credits, but we brought you back.”

“What about my crew? And who’s ‘we’?” Shepard’s face darkened at that last part. Few organizations would even have the money to do this, let alone be willing to spend it to bring a single person back. 

“As far as I know, pretty much everyone got to the escape pods. A dozen or so couldn’t make it or died immediately, but everyone from the ground team was at your funeral. But the Illusive Man decided he wanted you back, so Cerberus brought you back.”

_MANUAL OVERRIDE__

_LIMITERS AT 10%__

The woman leaned back a bit, like one would from a wild predator about to pounce them.

Which didn’t do much, considering a second later she was being slammed against a nearby glass wall by the taller Spectre, a forearm pinning her neck to go with the pistol pointed at her head.

_“What. The fuck. Does Cerberus want with me?”_ Shepard also wanted to know what the hell the doctor had done to make her body feel so heavy, but first things first.

“Please don’t shoot the messenger and/or the cybernetics expert. I’ve been telling you the truth.” _Cybernetics. Of course._ Her voice was strained, but she was keeping her hands up and didn’t break eye contact. Even with all the implants and mods the doctor had, Shepard could still pick up the signs that she wasn’t lying. Either that, or she was extremely skilled at it.

The pressure on the woman’s throat lessened, but the pistol stood still.

“You didn’t answer me.”

“The Illusive Man is the leader of Cerberus. Like I said, he wanted you back at all costs. Human colonies are being abducted and he thinks the Reapers are involved. He wanted you on the case. I promise, that’s all I know. I’m a scientist, not an agent.” Shepard took a few seconds to digest the information. 

On one hand, Cerberus actually doing something that could be considered _good_ was not something she’d ever expect. On the other, sinking absurd amounts of money and effort into an insane science project that, by all accounts, should be impossible? 

That was entirely on brand.

“Alright. Doesn’t sound any less insane than a race of ancient supersynthetics coming to kill us all.” But it was getting pretty close. Sighing, Shepard lowered her pistol, stepping back and replacing the thermal clip. Either it was a pretty crappy model, or things had changed more than she thought in the last two years for it to saturate the heatsink this quickly.

“Could you turn these limiters off so we can get to the damn shuttles? It’s pretty hard to move.” It felt like she could kill an Elcor by dropping onto it.

_LIMITERS AT 100%__

_AUTOMATIC REGULATION ENABLED__

“Of course. I do apologize, but if I hadn’t done that, you’d have taken my head clean off with that charge.” Immediately, she could feel her body being light and nimble again. The finely honed weapon she spent so much effort building. Though right now-

“What do you mean? Just how many augmentations did you cram in me?” Rounding another corner, three more LOKIs sprang into life. CQC training took over her actions, kicking the gun arm off of the closest one while it hadn’t finished getting up, a clean headshot on the one to the right and a disarming move to the one on the left which ended up with Shepard holding onto its disconnected arm.

Much to both her surprise and the mech’s.

“By volume, your body is now seventy six percent synthetic. Total weight is around three hundred and forty kilograms. Commander, you’re the magnum opus of my entire career. You could _punch a hole through a Mako_ with your bare hands now.” 

The robotic assailant looked at Henson. Then at Shepard. Then at its arm in her hand. Back to Shepard.

It then promptly turned around and jogged away.

“So what, I’m just your experiment, to puppet as you see fit?” She could see the doctor’s face sharpen in insult, but from her perspective it didn’t look like anything else. Getting rid of the extraneous limb, Ava moved forward through the escape route.

“Shepard, your body _lithobraked from orbit_ . There was barely anything _to_ rebuild. I needed access to your implants because _I created and installed_ them. No one else even has the hardware to access your system. For the last two years, you’ve been my patient. My responsibility. I may be Cerberus’s cybernetics specialist, but before that, I’m a doctor.”

Well, consider that nerve touched I guess. Though ideally, it makes sense that given a big enough organization, not everyone involved would be moustache-twirling villains. Didn’t make her hate this whole situation any less, but could be worse.

“And I’m pretty sure the Cerberus part doesn’t even apply anymore.” 

Another corridor, another pocket of resistance. Another- 

-bunch of mechs hit by Overload and exploded?

Henson smiled at Shepard. “I took the liberty of installing the process on our Omni Tools. Figured it’d be more useful than my godsawful shooting.” Looking at her own loadout, there it was, the Commander mused. 

“What did you mean by the Cerberus part?” According to that evacuation route, they should be pretty close to the escape shuttles by now. She can definitely hear gunfire from somewhere else. The cadence almost sounds like someone with N7 training.

“I- Fuck. There’s no easy way to explain this. Remember when I said I was one of the heads of the Lazarus project? More specifically, I’m the head of the Lazarus Beta cell.” 

Shepard spared a glance at the woman; she looked even more troubled than before.

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“Didn’t think you would. Lazarus Beta was supposed to be a backup in case Lazarus Alpha failed. Your biological matter is cloned. I was in the middle of overseeing your memory relaying process when the attack began. Miranda woke up Alpha, so I was supposed to euthanize you. Obviously I didn’t, so I’m probably squarely at the top of The illusive Man’s shit list right now.”

The fact that Shepard’s jaw hadn’t hit the floor while she stared at Henson was a remarkable achievement in willpower. 

“Please help?”

“This fucking day…” The Commander shook her head in disbelief, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Well, thanks for not killing me, at least. Anything else I need to be aware of? Have the reapers opened a daycare while I was dead as well?”

“Nope. I’m afraid I’ve run out of life-altering revelations for the time being. I’ll let you know if I find any more. And for what it’s worth, Alpha only has around 10% of original tissue. The rest is cloned and cybernetics, just like you. Honestly, the difference is academic in my opinion.” The doctor shrugged nonchalantly. Shepard just stared back for a second before opening the door to the shuttle hangar.

She’d have time to freak out later.

* * *

  
  
  


“Or two, in your case. Come o-”

“Friendlies three o’clock high!”

Ava Shepard looked up in surprise. Seems like someone else had come just in time. Some sort of doctor or medic and-

-and herself. Scanning the other entrances while making her way down the staircase towards them. Same hair. Same face. Same movements.

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Miranda cursed to herself, aiming her gun. “Henson! Have you made it your mission to turn my life into a living hell!?”

The doctor, apparently named Henson, wasted no time in returning the gesture. “No, I do it for fun! Better than any show on the extranet!”

Behind her, Shepard could hear Jacob taking one step back. “Nope. Not sticking my spoon between those two. Learned after the first time.”

Before the N7 could fully process what in the everloving fuck was happening, the… other, N7 had put herself between the pair, also aiming her gun at the Cerberus agent. “I gather you’re the head of Lazarus Alpha. Sadly for you and your boss, at least _someone_ in this damned station has a conscience.” She turned quickly to nod at Shepard. “Hi me. I’m you.”

Which was the point where the Commander stepped forward and extended her arms to both sides. “Would someone put their damned guns down and tell me what the HELL is going on here!?”

“I see your company hasn’t been as honest as mine.” Beta quipped, shifting her point of aim to the ground. “Fine, here’s the quick version: I’m your backup. The orders were to get rid of me if your project worked out. Thankfully, Anette over here-” 

Shepard noticed the modded ears, recognizing her as the doctor she’d seen during her brief moment of lucidity. For varying definitions of that word. The doctor, for her part, sheepishly aimed away from Shepard.

_Good to see you awake, Commander. I hope you’re well rested now__

“-decided that she’d rather not murder someone in their sleep. As for other information you might want to know, this is a Cerberus facility, and apparently their boss spent an awful lot of money and time bringing us back to life to look into abducted human colonies. With absolutely no strings attached, I’m sure.” 

The other her- and it was going to take a while to normalize that idea- holstered her weapon, pointing her right fist with the last two fingers extended towards Shepard.

Oh gods, the stupid, _stupid_ little secret handshake from her gang back on Earth. That was her clone, alright. Everyone else from the gang was dead.

She’d know.

Shaking her head in dismay, Shepard matched the gesture, bumping fists with herself before turning around on Miranda and unholstering her _own_ weapon. She knew she shouldn’t have trusted Cerberus for a second.

“Anything else you’ve _neglected_ to mention, Lawson? Should I expect _cyborg_ me to pop out of the woodworks as well?” She could see the consternation in Miranda’s face for a second behind the barrel of her gun before it was finally lowered as well.

“Damnit. Fine, we’ll work with this. And no Shepard, Beta was your only backup. One that indeed shouldn’t have been activated with you awake but I can see that ship has sailed.” 

A long-suffering sigh escaped her lips.

“Hopefully The Illusive Man will see it as ‘an unexpected bolster in project efficiency’. Let’s get going.” Miranda turned and opened the door to the shuttle.

“Sounds like your problem, not ours. How are you feeling, uh- Alpha? I guess we’ll need to go with those for now. You look like you could use another week or two in the fridge before waking up to this lunacy.” Her other self grinned, taking a seat and helping Henson in.

“Eh, it’s fine. Instructor Jacque back in the Villa would be shouting my ear off that she had gone to school everyday with unhealed implants uphill in the snow both ways.” She banged her gauntlet on the side of the vehicle, the universal signal for ‘everyone’s aboard’.

“Yep. And if any of us pointed out that it doesn’t snow in Brazil, it was back to the jungle without food for another day. Ah, good times. Before we died.” Beta looked off into the distance, sighing wistfully.

“To be fair-” Anette poked her head out from the last seat. “-you both _are_ the cyborg version. Three quarters of your body are synthetic. I built it. If you want, once we get to a place with decent medical facilities, I can accelerate the healing process.” The doctor tried to gesticulate with her left arm, only to realize it was still immobile. “Oh right. I should fix that.”

_I can also open a secure link between the two of you using the diagnostics channel for your augmentations, if you’d wish. Though it’d have to go through my systems as a relay__

Shepard focused for a second, trying to get used to a mental interface.

_Doctor, if it relays through you, it’s not secure by default__

“Close enough, though. Trustworthy, as far as I can tell.” Her clone opined, helping to hold Henson’s arm steady. The doctor used her teeth to take off the glove from her other hand, awkwardly wiggling it to make the sleeve fall back and revealing a perfectly human-shaped, but clearly synthetic, arm. From the underside, a panel slid open, revealing a microfabrication module not unlike the one found in Omni Tools.

Miranda stared at Henson, squinting. “What trouble are you making now?”

_Alright, let’s give it a shot__

“Why Lawson, to hear you speak one might think I’m the cause of all your troubles when that patently isn’t the case.” The doctor quipped conversationally while paying attention to something only she could see, the small drone she’d made having climbed to the bullet wound in her arm to help assess the damage.

_“Allegedly.”_ The Cerberus agent responded through gritted teeth.

_INITIATING BETHANY SUBSYSTEM__

“I’ve never seen someone leave their augmentations on bare polymer before, Doctor. Any particular reason?” Shepard asked, half of curiosity and half to get the Cerberus agent off the scent.

_α: Comms check, I guess?__

_β: Loud and clear__

_θ: Oh, good. I wasn’t actually sure it would work__

“Never really felt any desire to disguise it, honestly. It’s not like I can go undercover. The whole ‘cybernetic tail’ thing is a bit of a giveaway.” Henson answered while picking at her own flesh and circuitry with distressing nonchalance.

“Plus, I actually find the black polymer and woven fiber look quite beautiful.” Her eyes narrowed a fraction before she whispered to herself. “Oh, _there_ you are, little neural coupling.”

Miranda cleared her throat. “Before we meet with the Illusive Man, we need to ask a few questions to evaluate your condition. _Both_ of your conditions.” 

“Come on Miranda, more tests? I can vouch for uh- _Alpha’s_ combat skills personally. And even you can’t argue that the Doctor’s work isn’t flawless. If anything, Beta seems to be in even better condition.” Taylor argued, trying to offer an olive branch. 

Either that, or he was just bored. It was hard for Shepard to tell, he wasn’t the most expressive person she’d ever met.

“It’s been two years since the attack. The Illusive Man needs to know that Shepard’s personality and memories are still intact. Ask the questions.” The agent ordered, more than willing to pull rank over the man if needed.

_β: Shit. I only have the cliffnotes version after Virmire. Going to need some backup here__

_α: No N7 gets left behind. I got you__

_θ: I can also corroborate on anything if necessary__

_α: Doctor, may I ask how you’d know my memories off the top of your head?__

_θ: Oh, I oversaw the relaying process after we pieced them back together. That involves basically watching them all in fast forward to check for corruption or inconsistencies. So I- well, kinda know everything there is to know about you two__

Shepard blinked slowly to vent her frustration. Sure, she’d melded with Liara to share information (of many kinds) several times, but this was on a whole other level. She didn’t like sharing her life with strangers in the best of days, let alone without a choice.

_β: I’m afraid it’s the price we pay for being put back together from glorified nutrient paste__

“-led the defense of Elysium, saving thousands and pushing back the Batarian raiders while on shore leave. What do you remember about that?” Jacob inquired, sounding about as interested as someone reading the ingredient list of a military ration pack.

“Someone had to take command and organize that mess. I was the best qualified, so I did. Getting the civilians to shelters, organizing defenses, leading strike groups, it’s all what I’ve been trained to do. Just a bit of unexpected overtime.” Beta shrugged, sharing her honest thoughts on the matter. When compared with the hunt for Saren, Elysium had been almost a relaxing weekend.

“Yep.” Alpha agreed, letting her mouth pop at the end of the sound. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. Probably because I kinda did say it myself.” Shepard mused for a second in silence. 

“Having a clone is weird.”

“Trust me, being the clone is weider.” Beta replied.

“However you two want to put it, it was damned impressive. I had friends there that day.” Taylor turned to his Cerberus cohort, damn near rolling his eyes. “ _Satisfied_ , Miranda?”

“Almost.” The brunette responded, nonplussed. “Let’s try something more recent. Virmire, where you’ve destroyed Saren’s cloning facility. You had to leave one of your squad behind to die in the blast.” 

The mood in the shuttle instantly turned sour, thanks to two N7 infiltrators glaring holes into the agents. 

Jacob visibly swallowed before continuing. “Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was killed in the blast. It was your call. Why did you leave her behind?”

Beta was interrupted from raising her voice by Shepard reaching a hand over, nodding in her direction.

_α: I know, it’s been barely a day for you. Let me hit them in the face with some knowledge__

“I picked Chief Williams to go with the Salarian STG team to give them more firepower in their distraction mission. I picked Lieutenant Alenko to handle the deployment of the bomb thanks to his ability with technology. Both of them needed backup. One was a mission-critical target, one was not.”

Her glare intensified. 

“Williams was a casualty of the mission. I did _not_ choose to leave her behind on a whim. If I had to do it again, I’d go with the same choices, because they were the _right_ choices. Are we clear?”

“Crystal, Commander. I wasn’t judging your decision. Everyone at Cerberus knows that cloning facility had to be taken out.” He looked at Beta awkwardly.

“No offense..?”

For her part, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “None taken.”

“Shepard, think back to the Citadel. After the Alliance saved the Destiny Ascension and you killed Saren.” Miranda was clearly directing this one towards Ava’s clone.

“What happened next?”

_α: We had the choice to suggest someone to take a Council seat for humanity__

_θ: You had the choice between Anderson or Udina__

“I recommended Anderson for humanity’s seat on the council, of course.” She scoffed. “Who in their right mind would pick Udina?”

_α: Textbook, Shepard__

“Well, Captain Anderson is now _Councilor_ Anderson. Though I heard he preferred life in the military.” Both of them couldn’t help but smile. Of course he did, that old goat would have kicked Saren’s teeth in with his own boot if he could have.

“Still, really seems like he’s pushing as much as he can for humanity. The rest of the Council is still being- well, the _Council_ \- but I guess Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Jacob shrugged.

* * *

  
  
  


Henson looked around nervously while the group walked through the Cerberus facility. The last time someone messed with the Lazarus Project, they got a bullet between the eyes for their troubles. 

Granted, Rasa had tried to _steal_ Lazarus Gamma, but still. This is where her gamble would pay off or not.

_θ: So, about the whole ‘waking Beta up because of ethics’ and all that, I’ll need help to not get shot in the back of the head the moment you two are out of sight. It might not come as a surprise, but I don’t think Cerberus does retirement packages__

_α: Well, let’s see how much they’re willing to cooperate__

“Shepard, The Illusive Man is waiting for both of you in the conference room.” Miranda informed, not taking her eyes off the terminal facing the window.

“Is the Doctor’s safety going to be a problem?” Alpha crossed her arms while glaring down at the agent. Which wasn’t that difficult, considering the Commanders were easily the tallest ones in the area apart from Jacob, and even then, Henson was fairly sure Taylor’s build came from standard Alliance augmentations.

For as much as she approved of improving humanity by any and all available means, growth genes added during adult life never worked quite seamlessly when compared to when applied during childhood or even someone’s natural build, which was Shepard’s case. 

Not that she particularly cared, either way. Her low stature was one of the few things she had no desire to augment.

“For what it’s worth, Commander, in the interest of mutual cooperation, I will not harm Dr. Henson without being provoked.” She turned, letting her gaze linger sideways onto said person before meeting Shepard’s. “However, I cannot assure you that orders to the opposite will not be given.”

Beta sighed. “Oh, for the love of- Fine. Shep, go talk with terrorist supreme. I’ll watch over the good doctor.” The clone patted the pistol maglocked to her hip, leaning back against the railing and letting her head tilt back.

“Sounds like an idea. I should go.” Alpha nodded before heading down a separate hallway.

_β: Oh gods, is that what it sounds like? It’s so stiff__

_α: What? What’s wrong with it, it’s always worked__

_θ: Sounds fine to me. But I’ve been binge-watching your life for the last year or so, maybe I’ve just gotten used to it__

“There is a high-end fabricator in that wall near the restrooms. Should be able to get your hardsuit up and running, Commander.” Miranda pointed, back to her ever-so-important display.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. “For someone that might be in a firefight with me at any moment, you’re being awfully helpful.”

The brunette took a deep breath before shaking her head. “Shepard, we’re not stupid. We want your cooperation, not to end up like the other Cerberus cells you’ve come across. I trust my abilities, but to face you now would be even more suicidal than before, and I don’t say that lightly.” She shrugged.

“I just figured I’d take a page out of my _coworker’s_ book and be honest about the situation. An olive branch, so to say.”

“It’s appreciated, at the very least.” Beta answered after thinking for a few seconds. “We’ll see what happens.”

_β: Is she always this shady?__

_θ: Twenty five hours a day. As good a Cerberus agent as she is a substandard medic__

_α: Am I missing the party?__

_β: Fireworks haven’t started quite yet. How’s it going over there?__

Henson followed Shepard towards the restroom, running a set of diagnostics on her hastily repaired left arm. It wasn’t perfect, but it’d hold.

_α: Blah blah reapers are involved, blah blah good of humanity, blah blah. Though colonies being abducted without a trace does sound like something they’d be involved in. Apparently the Alliance is too busy rebuilding and preparing to take care of it__

_β: I want to say ‘Citation Needed’, but-__

_θ: Wouldn’t necessarily be the first time they drop the ball__

_β: Anything about the gang?__

_α: Spread all over the galaxy. We can voluntell them back after we debrief with Anderson__

_θ: I’m sure they’ll be happy to go for Suicide Mission 2: Electric Boogaloo__

_α: What can I say, it’s an art form. Hold on, I think Tim the Terrorist Man is asking me something__

“Well, I guess I get to live for a while longer. That’s always nice. Thank you, Shepard.” The doctor threw her coat tiredly at the counter top, double-checking her body for any more injuries. A scrape here or there, nothing that medi or omni-gel couldn’t fix. She set a few more drones to work while washing her face, taking a deep breath.

And catching the Commander looking at her while adjusting the hardplates of her own suit.

“You can ask, you know. I already know everything about you anyway, so it’s only fair.” Henson offered, adjusting her hair.

“I’m not even sure where to start. The tail, your army of cyber spiders, or you gleefully betraying Cerberus after working for them for what, two years?” Shepard counted on her fingers theatrically. “I mean, there’s more, but we can start with those.”

“Well, more like four, four and a half years?” She looked off to a side in the distance. “Long and short of it, I sold implants and augmentations in the Terminus for a while. Made a bit of a name for myself. Eventually I realize that one of my clients is Cerberus. They offer me quite a lot of credits to work exclusively for them, I see no reason to not accept. Fast forward a while, and here we are.” She shrugs.

“Nothing quite as exciting as saving the galaxy, I’m afraid. But the way things are going, I might be able to put that on my resume before too long.” A smile breaks out in her face, turning to face Shepard.

“So, just sold your work for the highest bidder? Why not the Alliance?” Ava finished putting on her last gauntlet.

_ARMOR SYSTEM CONNECTED__

_RESOURCE SHARING ENABLED__

“Also, do you have my manual? There’s a lot of things I don’t know how to use.” Shepard grinned in return.

“Not a finished version, no. But here’s an overview of most systems I’ve been putting together. I can get you something better in time.” Henson saw the file transfer confirmation appear in her vision.

“As for your question, believe me, I’ve tried. Got kicked out of Biomechatronics in Lowell University when my research was too ‘disruptive’ and ‘illegal by Council law’.” A mocking tone joined airquotes to emphasize her point. 

“The Alliance just isn’t willing to stand up for humanity when Citadel rulings come knocking. All I’ve ever wanted was to improve us, to make us more powerful, smarter, _safer_ . This _is_ our path forward, to leave the limitations of nature behind. We can be so much _better_.” 

Anette hung her head.

“But the Council says no, so we don’t.” Lifting her head again, she focused her gaze on Shepard, the red circles around her cybernetic iris seeming to glow in the light.

“I recognize they’ve made a decision, but since it’s a stupid fucking decision, I’ve elected to ignore it. I’m going to drag humanity into the future kicking and screaming if need be.”

The Commander took a while to digest the whole spiel, nodding to herself a few times. “I think I can understand it. But it sounds like it’s personal for you.”

Henson sighed. “It is. But that’s a long story. I’ll tell you one day. As for the visual mods, I just thought they looked nice, so I got them. None of the tails on the market were good enough, so eventually I just made my own. And to be fair-” 

She grinned while deliberately swaying her mechanical tail side to side, the sections separating to reveal high-grade synthetic muscle fibers under the plating that itself had changed angle, the whole thing taking the shape more of a bladed whip than anything else.

“-no one expects the defenseless tiny little doctor to slice their arm off when they refuse to pay for the implants.”

Shepard smiled while shaking her head in mild disbelief. “I will admit, I didn’t either.”

“The doctor giveth, the doctor taketh away.” Her tail contracted, going back to its normal shape and length. “Anyway, at least we’re a bit more even now. Feel free to tell Alpha any of this, if you want.”

* * *

  
  
  


“Welp, apparently, another colony got hit just an hour ago. Might as well strike while it’s hot.” Shepard announced, walking out of the conference room while her other self and Henson joined in on her flank. 

“And I guess we’re taking you two with us as well.” She mentioned, pointing at the Cerberus agents while heading back to the shuttle, maglocking the weapons Beta was handing her. Nothing more than standard issue as far as she could tell, at least until she was handed the pistol.

“Huh, what’s this? Derivative on the HMW Master line?” Shepard looked at the information lighting up her view, detailing the specifications.

“Indeed. M-6 Carnifex. More or less an HMW Master, updated with the new rail standards and the accompanying thermal clip design. I got the fab data as a gift from an old customer, figured you two could use it.” Henson ejected and reinserted the heatsink, getting used to the handling.

“I’ve never gotten the chance to, myself, and hopefully still won’t by staying with the shuttle when we arrive. Unless you two need my help.” 

_θ: Please don’t ask for my help. I’m running military grade shields now but I’m still a civilian__

Beta smiled. “No worries Doctor, we should be able to handle it. Plus, keeping an escape route secured is more important than you might think. Oh, Alph?” The clone looked at Anette, tilting her head towards the Commander.

“Here’s some updated programs we got running. Incendiaries, Disruptor and Cryo rounds, AI hack, the usual. _And_ a nice little extra thanks to the cybernetics.” A sinister chuckle echoed through the ship when the other Shepard seemed to disappear into thin air.

Alpha squinted, trying to make out anything in the visual spectrum, but despite knowing her clone was sitting literally besides her, nothing gave her position away. Some mental gymnastics let her swap the vision mode to thermals. Still nothing. Finally, to broadband EM radiation, and at last she could _just_ about make out the outline of the fellow N7.

An equally sinister smile plastered her face. “Oh now, we can cause some mayhem with this.”

“Indeed.” Beta, for all intents and purposes, melted back into existence. “I’ve been thinking. We could go for Double Marksman, but I feel like it’d be diminishing returns.”

Shepard raised an eyebrow.

“Marksman-Shadow?”

She saw herself looking back innocently, with a very non-innocent tilt of her head.

“Works for me. Alright you two, any info?” Shepard looked at the people she’d have backing her up in the Marksman role. She trusted them as far as she could-

Wait, that metaphor didn’t really work anymore, did it. 

_β: We trust them as far as we can smell them?__

_θ: Is there a word for ‘high-pitched argumentative noise’?__

_α: Probably in some old Earth language__

“Every colony we’ve managed to investigate so far was completely deserted. No bodies, not even bullet marks. For all the world, they might as well have gotten up and left.” Miranda recounted.

“But this is the quickest we’ve ever been to the scene. Other than that, it’s just a small mining outpost. Prefabs and basic concrete.” Jacob finished.

“I see. We’ll prioritize looking for any survivors that might still be left. Other than that, any clue we can find is fair game. Lawson, I want you on crowd control and disruption, to my right. Taylor, you’re on flanking duty, otherwise on my left.” Shepard synchronized her Omni Tool to the two agents, sharing tactical information.

“Doctor, can you set a secure marker of my position for them? I’ll be taking the road less traveled, and would prefer not to be shot at by mistake.” Beta requested, training simple commands in the mental interface.

Henson’s eyes darted around for a second, before she twitched her right index once. “Done and done. You’ll be marked by an outline in the shared battlespace.”   
  
“Commander, I’m picking up a Quarian shuttle landed in the AO. Wasn’t here before the attack.” Jacob brought up the holographic image for the group to see. The design was unmistakable, but it left far more questions than answers.

_α: Of fucking course. Why would it be simple?__

_β: At this point that’d just be out of character for the universe whenever we’re involved__

_θ: I guess I’ll guard ours- extra hard?__

Shepard got up, deploying her Mantis while their craft descended the last few meters.

“Alright, let’s untangle this mess.”

  
  



End file.
